From the Forum: Resetting the website's focus

Post date: May 25, 2013 9:43:12 PM

Although www.7BillionAndYou.org was created primarily as a support to our initial series of university-public lectures in Vancouver, BC, during the spring of 2013, the feedback we received throughout the series has led to our adopting somewhat of a new direction. We are now rededicating the website to fostering informed dialogue on population-related topics.

In the same spirit of the original seminars, we believe in the need to engage people from across academic and public communities, NGOs and governments, whether individuals or special interest groups, in a dialogue on population. We believe the human numbers underlie many if not most of the major challenges we face today. We believe that if change is needed, it may best be fostered by combining current knowledge found in academia with the political will found within the public.

This means: the Forum is now an arena open for posting and discussion of any population-related topic; participants from every geographical region, inside and outside universities, organizations, and government are encouraged to join the dialogue; topics, comments, debate, and insights will come from Forum participants (it is not a podium for those of us who made the website); and the more people from a greater variety of backgrounds, the more representative will be the discussion and any consensus that it reaches.

Regarding the last point, we have recognized the need to get out word about the website and the Forum in order to engage as many people as possible in the dialogue. For this reason, www.7billionandyou.orghas become the anchor point for two related web initiatives: 7 Billion And You on Facebook; and @7BillionAndYou on Twitter. Both initiatives are also open to everyone to post and comment, and we encourage you to join, and follow. Most of all, we encourage you to share the pages and the posts with people on your own webpages.

Just imagine what would happen if everyone were engaged in talking about and implementing solutions to global population-related problems! We hope www.7billionanyou.org can contribute to that journey, and we offer it as one opportunity to take a step in that direction.

We hope that you will join us.